Positioning troops at polling places on election day would hurt American democracy, said a former Pentagon official rumored to be a candidate for defense secretary under a Biden administration.
Michèle Flournoy, who served as undersecretary of defense for policy under Barack Obama, gave the warning Wednesday after President Trump suggested during Tuesday night’s presidential debate that his supporters “go into the polls and watch very carefully” for fraudulent activity.
The president’s comment was quickly analyzed by experts who have questioned whether he would deploy the National Guard to polling places to monitor the process and quell possible unrest.
“I would hate to see a situation where we have to inject the military and the Guard into our democratic elections. … I don’t think that’s a healthy thing for our democracy,” Ms. Flournoy said.
Speaking at a virtual event on military modernization hosted by Defense News, Ms. Flournoy said that encouraging the act of poll-watching could intimidate voters during what is considered an intimate, private procedure.
“This is a democratic process,” she said. “We know how to do this. We’ve done it over and over and over again, without violence, with peaceful transition.”
Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed reluctance to conduct a peaceful transition of power should Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden win the presidency.
“That’s according to the rule of law, and our Constitution,” Ms. Flournoy said. “We need to hold each other accountable as Americans to back off of this fire that we’re playing with.”
She is rumored to be on Mr. Biden’s list of candidates for defense secretary, and she has welcomed the possibility.
Ms. Flournoy told NBC News during the annual Aspen Security Forum in August that public service is her “calling” and she would “do anything to support” Mr. Biden “for the sake of the country.”
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